Wow, Do the Yankees Look Old

ByNando Di Fino

See if you can name this New York baseball team. It’s lost nine of its last 12. It was just swept at home by its hated rivals, players are making errors at an alarming rate and they bumbled their way through a huge, unforeseen off-field issue on Saturday. Here’s another hint: They’re not the Mets.

Associated Press

Who knew there’d be any potential drama between Jorge Posada and the man he replaced behind the plate all those years ago?

The New York Yankees, the proud, historic, 27-time World Series winners, are in a rut. The Boston Red Sox came to town and swept them at home, extending their losing streak to five games. They now head to Florida to face first-place Tampa Bay in a four-game two-game series that—if all continues to go wrong—could have them and their $207 million payroll with a sorrier record than the money-hungry Mets, who have won seven of their last 10.

No incident better paints a picture of the current Yankees than this weekend’s drama featuring designated hitter Jorge Posada. After being told he was batting ninth on Saturday, Posada asked manager Joe Girardi to take him out of the lineup. What followed was a dizzying amount of commentary, speculation and contradiction. Rumors swirled that the 39-year-old Posada, batting .165 in his first year as a full-time designated hitter, might announce his retirement. Brian Cashman was interviewed live on the Fox broadcast and seemed as flummoxed as anyone else. Posada simply said he needed a day off and then offered that his back was a little stiff from taking grounders at first base before the game. His wife took to social media to defend him. By the end of the night, there was talk of possibly voiding his contract, with nobody sure what would happen next. (Posada was not in the starting lineup Sunday, but walked in a pinch-hit plate appearance to loud applause.) That the Yankees were shut out 6-0, by Josh Beckett, whose career ERA against New York is 5.66, seemed to get lost in the shuffle. A few weeks ago, it was Derek Jeter in decline. Saturday, it was Posada. On Sunday night, Alex Rodriguez caught slack for making an error on a routine ground ball. “This is larger than Posada,” the New York Post’s Joel Sherman writes. “The Yankees have more aging icons than any team. And if it’s Posada today, which aging Yankees icon will it be tomorrow?”

On Sunday, Posada issued apologies for his behavior. Ian O’Connor of ESPN believes this was actually a bad thing for the team, as it ended a distraction that had been keeping everyone’s attention from the fact that the Yankees are a mess of a team. For Sunday’s game, he points out, Girardi posted a lineup that didn’t include a single batter hitting at least .300. It was true for every game of their losing streak. “They don’t catch the ball, they don’t hit it and they don’t pitch it out of the bullpen, either. They come across as slow, old and athletically challenged at too many positions in the field,” O’Connor writes. “The Yankees stink.”

* * *

After Oklahoma City sent the upstart Memphis Grizzlies home in Game Seven of their series Sunday, the Eastern Conference finals kicked off with Chicago’s 103-82 blowout of Miami. The assertive victory was punctuated by two Taj Gibson dunks. The first came in the second quarter over Miami star Dwyane Wade…

…while the second was a high-flying putback off a missed three-pointer:

While Gibson later said that the second dunk was his favorite of the game, it was the first that had everyone talking. Wade even noted that it was the first time he had been dunked on all season. Making the feat more impressive is that Gibson isn’t even known for his dunking. “As usual,” writes ESPN’s Nick Friedell, “he just tries to do what Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau wants him to do the most: play defense and rebound. Anything beyond that is just a bonus.”

* * *

American Idol contestant Scotty McCreery may be known by millions of Americans for his deep, country-twanged voice, but to his hometown, he had already established himself as a star in another arena: baseball. McCreery was 6-1 with a 1.04 ERA for Garner High (Tenn.) (N.C.) last year as the ace of the junior varsity pitching staff. This season, he had to make the difficult decision of choosing between the reality show and his fledgling pitching career. Singing won out—McCreery is one of three contestants left on the show—but the baseball team handed him what looks like a gag save in a recent Garner game. It’s not clear if the error was a joke submitted to the paper by the scorekeeper, a clever nod to McCreery’s success, or a mistake in transcription, but McCreery’s name showed up in the box score where Alec Hulme’s should have. “He hasn’t been able to play, or even be in town, this season,” the News & Observer’s Tim Stevens writes, “because of his success on the Los Angeles-based television show.”

* * *

It’s no secret that television cameras immediately turn away from fans running onto the field, so the only footage of this mad dash by 27 year-old Kevin Crabtree is somewhat shaky and amateur. But while most field dashes end with three or four security guards lumped on top of a drunken, shirtless fan who just ran in circles for 60 seconds as bemused players look on, Crabtree’s recent dash onto the field at Houston’s Minute Maid park has the stuff of legend, with some superhero elements mixed in: speed, scaling of walls and a leap into darkness. According to KHOU, Crabtree was arrested — outside of the stadium! — for trespassing and evading arrest. But his run onto the field will live on forever:

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